TELEPHONES POPULAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1939, Page 5

TELEPHONES POPULAR

NEARLY TEN THOUSAND NEW SUBSCRIBERS IN YEAR. The telephone system of the Dominion has expanded so rapidly as to place New Zealanders high up on the list of the world's greatest telephone users. The past year ended with a total number of subscriber connections to exchanges of 155.203. showing a net gain for the twelve months of 9796. which has never previously been exceeded. The number of subscribers has grown by 33.710 since the service commenced to again advance after the depression of 1932. There are other important features in this development. The telephone has long ceased to be an instrument for occasional use. "Telephone convenience" has been studied by New Zealanders, not only by business men who require the instrument on their desks, but by private residents who install extension telephones in their rooms instead of confining the handy instrument to the hall. The result ,has been that there are nearly 40,000 telephones supplementing the main exchange connections. The telephone on the street corner is another appreciated facility, and there are over a thousand public call offices throughout the Dominion. New Zealand is the only country in the world in which calls may be made through public coin-in-the-slot telephones for one penny. Altogether there are nearly 198,000 telephones in use, and of these 55 per cent, are automatically operated by the subscribers through seventeen of the larger exchanges.